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RIM Attracts 15,000 Apps For BlackBerry 10 In 2 Days

Posted by timothy on from the pay-enough-you'll-get-all-you-want dept.

CWmike writes "It's starting to look like the BlackBerry store will be well stocked with apps when Research In Motion launches BlackBerry 10 (see YouTube preview) at the end of this month. The company held an event over the weekend where it offered app developers incentives to port their programs to the BlackBerry 10 platform and managed to attract 15,000 app submissions. 'Well there you have it. 37.5 hours in, we hit 15,000 apps for this portathon. Feel like I've run a marathon. Thanks to all the devs!' wrote Alec Saunders, vice president of developer relations at RIM, in a Twitter message. The 'port-a-thon' event was held in two parts: One aimed at Android developers and the other at apps written in other platforms, including Appcelerator, Maramalade, Sencha, jQuery, PhoneGap and Qt. RIM was offering $100 for each app ported and subsequently approved for sale in the BlackBerry 10 app store, up to certain limits. Developers could also win BlackBerry 10 development handsets and a trip to RIM's BlackBerry Jam Europe developer event." It's hard to believe that many current iOS or Android users are leaping toward Blackberry, though. If you're in one of those camps, is that so crazy?

13 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. The question is... by GerbilSoft · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many of those 15,000 "apps" are actually useful, and how many are just worthless single-site frontends?

    1. Re:The question is... by 6Yankee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      5,000 single-site frontends and 10,000 fart apps.

    2. Re:The question is... by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How many of those 15,000 "apps" are actually useful, and how many are just worthless single-site frontends?

      And how is this question relevant here vs. every other app store boasting the same 1:1,000 ratio of good to worthless apps?

      Seems a bit premature to bash RIM for doing nothing more than what everyone else does...and that is publish huge nicely rounded marketing numbers for apps, regardless of value-add.

    3. Re:The question is... by GerbilSoft · · Score: 3, Insightful

      iOS has the same problem, as does Windows Phone and Windows 8. (It's actually much worse on Windows 8; pretty much every app there is a worthless website frontend.)

    4. Re:The question is... by geminidomino · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Seems a bit premature to bash RIM for doing nothing more than what everyone else does

      In the general case, that's true. But when you consider the thrashing they've been taking in recent memory, doing "nothing more" than anyone else does probably won't accomplish a whole lot for them.

    5. Re:The question is... by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd be more interested in finding out how many of those are even legit.
      http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57562905-94/blackberry-app-world-said-to-hawk-pirated-android-apps/

      That's not a platform issue, it's an asshattery issue. You can also find tens of thousands of apps that are repackaged iOS/Android apps on iOS/Android - with few or no changes.

      Like any other platform, they can't reasonably go to check each app submission against every known platform and verify the credentials of the developer match up - it's not realistic which is why none of the others do it.

      RIM has made it very easy for any legitimate app developer to file a claim and have an app taken down - and responds to such complaints much more quickly than its rivals based on actual results.

    6. Re:The question is... by dogsbreath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "BB loyalist" is about as disparaging as you need to be...

      this is a blanket?
      jah
      and we are pigs?
      jah
      then this is funny, jah?
      jah! that is a good one!

      Cheap jokes aside, IMHO this is lots of room for BB to move back into being a player.

      First, they still have a very large user base and second, the other players all have significant weak areas that BB could target.

      BB has always been about business communications and productivity, areas that Apple has never been any good at. Email on iPhones is a joke at best. Even if you jailbreak and install "mail enhancer pro" (jah, that is a good one too!), the mail tool is missing core functionality.

      Multitasking on iPhones is pathetic and a total pain to move data between apps. BB 10, if it is still based on QNX, should have the built in capability to change how parallel applications and parallel processing paths function on mobile devices. Raise the bar as they say.

      The iPad is interesting and a decent lightweight tool for browsing web but again absolutely not a power tool. More like a kids workbench.

      The two vendors who have traditionally been powers in the business space, Microsoft and BB, seem to recognize this and are making plays in an area that Apple just does not understand or fails to address well.

      I don't quite know what to make of Android in this area as it should be able to fill the void as well but does not seem to have a leader in the business arena.

      BYOD is popular amongst the working population but corporately there is a desire to retain control over corp. communications and security, at least in the Fortune 500. Time is ripe for BB to get back into business.

      Anyways, competition is good and from that point of view I am hoping BB succeeds.

      Best not to be too religious about platforms, companies, hardware etc. They are just tools and who wants to be mired in a world dominated by iOS and Android when other excellent systems exist?

    7. Re:The question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Doesn't the Apple store count a book as an "app"?

      No Apple do not count books as "apps". A simple search can turn up this info.

  2. so why would i buy a blackberry? by alen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    instead of an iphone or one of the Galaxy phones?

    do they do anything that iOS or Android does not?

    1. Re:so why would i buy a blackberry? by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh, I agree ... historically, that's been the primary reason for BlackBerry stuff. If you can access Exchange from other devices readily, what does RIM bring to the table?

      At which point, they're just another manufacturer with nothing to differentiate themselves or make their platform a better choice.

      If they don't have something nobody else does, I don't know what is going to bring customers they've already lost back.

      I'd love to see a list of reasons why someone should go with a BlackBerry, because I'm at a loss to come up with a single one myself. That's not to say they don't exist, but they need to be sure to explain to people why it's worth looking at their products.

      There was a time I'd have said "a phone running QNX, wow, that must be awesome". Now I just wonder how badly they've mangled QNX.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Re:App bounty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Which is dirt cheap considering hourly rates for even starting developers. I would expect that Microsoft, for example, has poured tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars for boosting the WP app store.

  4. Re:App bounty by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which, if you think about it, probably is a wise investment.

    If on day one there's 15 apps, nobody is going to buy one because it's dead on arrival and the money you spent developing it would be a waste. If there's 15,000 apps, it's possible to conclude it's not a completely useless platform.

    Releasing it without apps would be suicide, because there's nothing interesting about a smart phone you can't get software for. By now, anybody who has had a smart phone has a list of a handful of apps which are deal breakers.

    Now, the question remains as to if enough people will care enough to buy these. I'm not sure anything RIM does at this point is going to make me say "oooh, I need a BlackBerry" ... but they do need to get a significant amount of people to do that.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  5. Yah, sure by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because 100 dollars is a fortune! I mean, it would get you a whole hour of my time! I will EAT TONIGHT!

    The smart developer doesn't restrict himself to one platform, especially in a market that already has seen major shifts.

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.